HNT #17 - "In life as a dance:..."

"...Grace glides on blistered feet." - Alice Abrams

This is a long one, but it's guaranteed to make your day look great in comparison. Pictures are throughout, I'll understand if you scroll ahead, but they may not make as much sense...

Last Thursday was a very trying day...trying, and painful! Here is a story which paints a more realistic view of the real me, as opposed to the glamorous and sophisticated woman I am in my own mind (shhh...nobody asked you!). I am a completed and utter klutz!

As with any story, good or otherwise, I will start at the beginning (and finish at the end).

I woke up Thursday morning and the sun was shining, the birds were singing - well they were honking and cooing because the birds in my neighborhood are geese and pigeons - and I was in a good mood. Tired of looking like a slob at work, I decided to put on my new dress - a cute black shirt dress with a retro 40s flare - my favorite stockings, and my sexy mary-jane heels.

Lunch time rolls around, and the day had only become more beautiful with the passing hours. And I thought, what better way to enjoy lunch than to go for a walk? So off I went in search of some sun and some sustenance. Sustenance was procured in the form of a citrus chicken wrap and a bowl of borscht from a local coffee house - to "go" naturally, so I could enjoying while sitting outside. The plan was to go back to the office, ditch my purse, grab my water bottle and head across the street to a park bench...the worst part about plans is that they often don't work out.

I made it almost back to the office when..."OH NO, DISASTER!!!". I'm still not really sure what happened first, but the bowl of soup slid off the container holding the wrap, and the strap on my shoe came undone just as a couple of ladies were walking in the opposite direction. I thought it best to step out of the way and let them past to avoid further problem. So I stepped onto the grass boulevard, and put the heel of my undone shoe directly into one of the little holes left from a very recent aeration - you guessed it - DOWN I go! Just as the two ladies were walking past too. I skinned my knee on landing (yes, you heard me right...I'm 27 - almost 28 - and I SKINNED my knee), and managed to ruin my favorite stockings in the process. Not to mention the embarrassment of falling in front of complete strangers....I picked my mortified self up and briskly walked the few dozen steps back to the office with my held held in shame, to assess the damage.

Not only had I ruined my stockings, I had a surprising amount of grass stuck to an alarmingly bloody knee, and shin. On top of that, half of my borscht has spilled inside the bag, and onto my wrap - and as I'm sure you all know, borscht it thick and red from all the beets in it...which makes it very very messy!!! I stripped off the ruined stocking, cleaned and bandaged my knee, cleaned up the beet mess, and headed over to the drug store across the street to buy replacement stockings to cover my bandaid shame. Standing at the till paying for my $7 stockings, I noticed another catastrophe...the strap on my purse had torn through when I fell as well.

Needless to say, I am in a fowl mood by this point, lunch is nearly over and I haven't had a bite to eat. So I stomp my way back across the street to the office, into the ladies room and start to put my new stockings on...which I manage to put my finger through in my rage - JUST GREAT!!!! For anyone whose keeping track that's my knee, my purse and now 2 pairs of stockings RUINED in about a half hour!

When I finally didsit down to eat my lunch (at my desk), I am on the verge of tears, and the fact that both my wrap and my soup have gone stone cold is almost enough to push me over the edge...but I didn't cry. I called Mr. J instead. He's good for that, always makes the bad things seem less so!

That evening I went for a two hour walk with my brother's finace, and due to my new(ish) sandles I ended up with a blister on the BOTTOM of each foot. But that was down right pleasent compared to the rest of my day. And they healed up in a day and half!

So there you have the clumsy side of me as this weeks HNT post. Much more vulnerable than posting a semi clad photo of myself! The photos (from the top) are: the shoes that tried to kill me (but I still love them), my skinned knee as it looked Tuesday night, my poor purse and it's broken strap, and my gone (but not forgotten) stockings.

I won't be able to make the HNT rounds tonight as I will be at the Franz Ferdinand & Death Cab For Cutie concert. Hopefully tomorrow. Also, I'm off to California on Saturday for a week - Mr. J is running the Big Sur marathon - I will hopefully be making a HNT post from there, but I'm not going to make any promises.

And as always, if you want in on the HNT scoop..click the button.